Poland

Jelena Gora - Wroclaw - Krakow - Witzlicka Salt Mines - Ausztwitz - Birkenau - Zakopane...

Czecz!

I'm actually in Kosice, Slovakia, recovering from a night of partying and no sleep in a famous nightclub in Zavolen with Jana and friends. But this email is about Poland.

My entrance in Poland was rather unexpected. I was trying to decide whether I should go to Wroclaw (Poland) or spend longer in Czech Rep via Ostrava and then straight to Krakow. So I asked the guy next to me at the internet cafe what he thought. He told me that he was actually working in Poland and as the border was 15km away, asked me if I needed a lift there as he was going there in 20 minutes. So I said "sure why not?"

Crossing the border was scary as I hadn't fully researched whether Aussies can go to
Poland without a visa after the joined the EU in May. Even the guards weren't sure but
after a 5-minute wait while they made phone calls they gave me the thumbs up. I was in!

Alec (the guy who picked me up) is a Slovakian linen factory owner (owns 2) in Poland.
Anyway, he basically paid for everything for me that day - he ended up taking me to lunch, then we went swimming in a posh hotel pool in the Sudeden mountains, and then he brought a couple of friends with us for dinner and lots of drinks around the outskirts of Jelena Gora.
I even met the Commander of the Polish forces in the Iraq war (nice guy)!
There I also had my first taste of Polish vodka! And second. And third. And...

Woke up the next day in his spare bedroom in one of his factories, after more vodka and conversation early in the morning. He dropped me off as close as he could to Wroclaw while he went to a meeting. He also offered me some work when I come back to spend proper time in Poland next year.

Wroclaw is a beautiful city, with nice river islands, churches and a pretty Flemish like town square with all manner of buskers and street performers, some amazing, others terribly embarrassing to watch!

Went to Krakow next, which is more beautiful and bigger than Wroclaw, with a huge town square and a wild nightlife which left me sleep deprived constantly (I always got home around 6:30am when the clubs closed).

One night I ended up climbing up a rope left dangling in a nightclub onto the top balcony to the sounds of Polish clapping and cheering. Why I did it I don't know, but apparently I was the first to do it. Possibly the last too.

Polish girls also have a thing for fake solarium suntans which look awful in my opinion!

Seems like 80's music has only just reached eastern Europe by the sounds of it playing everywhere, on the radio, buses, nightclubs, bars etc...

I am getting some good cultural experiences, seeing Polish folk dance performances, one evening was watching an outdoor orchestra, ballet and 5 brilliant tenors singing in the main square in Krakow.

Went to the Wiezlicka salt mines which apparently are a big tourist attraction, attracting 7000 people a day to the underground salt mines where everything (floor, walls, ceiling, sculptures) are all carved out of the solid rock salt, and 131 metres underground there is a beautiful chapel that took 3 miners 63 years to carve out (they could have just hired some more people!!).

Also went to see the concentration camps at Austzwitz and Birkenau, where you can see evidence of the huge extermination factories (gas chambers and crematoriums), and possessions of all the murdered people such as combs, shoes, glasses etc in warehouses. They even had huge bags of female human hair which was used to make fabrics during the war. Human nature at its worst.
It's not surprising to discover Polish people are very bitter against the Germans.

My last night in Poland was also quite unusual, as instead of going to Zakopane, I spent the day looking after an English friend (Paul) who was ill from food poisoning, at the hostel, with his Polish girlfriend (Vicky). Ended up leaving the hostel and staying with her and Paul in one of her friend’s flats (who wasn't there) in the middle of a ghetto in the Jewish quarter of Krakow, sharing a room with two pet pythons and a turtle! Cooking toast by holding bread with forks over a gas stove was an funny experience...

Vicky got me to try some Pierogi (polish dumplings filled with cheese and potatoes). Yum.

Other foods I got to try are Bigos (stew with sauerkraut, different meats and anything else they feel like throwing in), Golacbki (cabbage stuffed with rice and meat), zurek (sour soup), and barszsz (beetroot soup). Yum Yum.

Next day I went to Poprad, Slovakia via Zakopane and the high Tatra mountains, a beautiful huge mountain range of rugged mountain tops, forests, lakes, etc that I wish I had time to explore.

Anyway I’ll write about Slovakia (and Budapest) soon.

James needs sleep now. Sorry if this email is all over the place...

Do widezia!
James

Czech Republic

Prague - Cesky Krumlov - Cesky Budejovice - Telc - Brno - Moravian Karst - Hradec Kralove - Kutna Hora - Sedlers Ossuary - Trutnov - Adrspach - Teplice

Dobre den,

Forgive me (prominte) if this email is weird, recovering in Wroclaw (Poland) with a hangover from last nights Polish Vodka in a bizarre twist of events that ended up with me crossing the Czech border into Poland sooner than expected and staying in a factory owned by a rich linen factory owner in Jelena Gora. But that's my next email.

Anyway, Czech Republic.

I lost count of how many times I said to myself "What or how on earth did I end up here?" - some spur of the moment planning and coin tossing and I found myself in places where I was the only tourist and having to rely on my bad German to compensate for my worse Czech. Fun though, and well worth it!

I got stung by a huge wasp on my backside upon arrival to Prague! Grrr. Thing about Czech Republic is that there are bugs everywhere, I must have had every kind of insect crawl over me when reading in the many nice parks around the country! I also remember a family playing soccer, with me lying in the middle of the field!

Anyway, Prague is a beautiful mystical untouched city, even Hitler refused to bomb it during the war. There seems to be some mystique about the city, but that could be just the haze that floats around the famous Charles bridge with the statues at early dawn or late at night. Whatever it is, the flood of tourists there never ceases, which makes it harder to appreciate the bohemian green and gold domed city properly without having to hear the whine of an American voice for the 100th time asking stupid questions, complaining about the weather, and stating the obvious!

Interesting note: The city of Prague is apparently laid out the same way as Jerusalem - the Temple of Solomon however is replaced with a park, but the street layout is the same!

Went to the castle, which was nice but a little overrated (or maybe I’ve seen too many castles before). Somehow snuck in for free when the (American) crowds went home at 6pm.

I've been drinking too much beer in Czech Republic - it's all good, and it's the same cost to buy a 0.5L beer* as 0.2L coke, so even if you don't want to drink beer, it seems more economical to do so!
* A 0.5L beer is 20CK, or 0.80 euros!

The nightlife in Prague was disappointing. In fact in Czech Republic most places seem to close early and the streets are usually empty at night. Or you go to a discotheque.

Went for a swim in a lake somewhere in Prague. Was lucky to find it. Also discovered a swimming pool in the middle of nowhere, in a field surrounded by trees and rocky hills/cliffs and frequented only by locals.

Went to Cesky Krumlov next, which is a pretty little village town (also full of tourists) with a castle and a very loopy river that almost works as a moat around the town. A nice place to relax, spent most of my time reading and sleeping in the park and watching people rafting, swimming or floating on tyres down the river and rapids.. Also had some nice traditional goulash with the best bread dumplings ever!

Had a Budweiser in Cesky Budejovice, which is where they make the famous Czech Budweiser beers. The old large renaissance town square is pretty, with the town hall featuring evil looking dragon heads and statues...

Somehow ended up in Telc, which I’m glad because it is very picturesque and I’m a sucker for old small towns (population 6000) surrounded by bodies of water (which is why Annecy is my favourite town). The gothic turned renaissance town is incomplete, some buildings are missing its baroque decorations because the person designing it died before it was finished and they left the town as is.

Brno was next, the capital of the area known as Moravia (Prague is capital of Bohemia). A nice city, with heaps of sculptures of angels lining doorways or holding up fountains. The churches in Czech Rep are filled with beautiful marble and gold sculptures of cherubs etc that come out of the walls so much you think you freeze-framed them flying around the church altarpieces and paintings!

Saw the Olympic opening ceremony with people at the hostel in a bar, and we played drinking games when the athletes walked in (take a drink for every country starting with "C", wearing green, has a union jack, or an athlete using a video camera. I can't believe so many countries started with the letter "C"!). Inebriated afterwards, we went to a discotheque, hot, crowded, and full of pretty Czech girls who can't speak English. Lots of fun though.

Went to the Moravian Karst, an area north of Brno filled with limestone caves, mountains and gorges. Went into Katarinska caves and the famous Punkenski caves which contained beautiful stalagmite filled caverns and a boat cruise in the underground river which was fun! They also had a thing for playing classical music in some of the caverns to show off the acoustics...

Left Brno for a random destination which turned out to be Hradec Kralove, which looked like an ugly town from all the high rise concrete buildings around it but entering the small town centre you can see some stunning colourful gothic-turned-baroque buildings (as seems the case with many small towns in Czech Rep).

Kutna Hora was next, a pleasant little silver mining town where you can go into the mines themselves in hand chiselled corridors so small you think dwarves mined there!

Also saw the infamous Sedlers Ossuary, the bone church decorated with the bones of 40,000 people - they even made a spectacular chandelier and coat of arms out of them! Morbid and has moral implications but amazing nevertheless...

Went to Trutnov, a nice gothic turned renaissance town, to stay the night before heading up into the Adrspach - Teplice rocks, which is a series of natural rock pillars, caves and mountains amongst lush forests reminiscent of scenery from "Lord of the rings". It is a spectacular place, and hiking 12km through narrow rock crevices and caves, climbing up rocks, walking across broken bridges with missing planks and trails barely distinguishable amongst the dense forest is the most fun hiking trail I’ve been on!

Then I (unexpectedly) went into Poland..


Czech Republic in a Nutshell

Trying to keep this short now (as a lot of it is written above anyway)..

Ah, the Czech Republic, a place where the cheap best quality beer flows aplenty, the grass is green and the girls are pretty!

Czech Republic is a beautiful country filled with gothic turned baroque/baroque towns with green domed buildings and cathedrals in flat grassy plains, with the occasional outcrop of rocks and trees containing beautiful scenery and rock formations/caves.

The people are quite laid back with a silly sense of humour and quite friendly, but English speaking is rare outside of Prague. I had to rely on my German a lot.

The Czech language as you know is very difficult to learn, so if you ever go, just learn to say this:

"Pivo, prosim" (Beer please)

and then;

"Dekuji" (Thanks)

Lost count of the number of curious stares, smiles and giggles I got from people when I walked past them. An Australian-Asian with a big green backpack walking through the centre of a predominantly Czech population has that sort of effect I guess.

One last thing to note: It doesn't matter which town you are in the world, it seems there is ALWAYS a Chinese restaurant there somewhere!


Best city/town: Prague, Telc, Cesky Crumlov

Worst city/town: Trutnov (cause I need to choose one)

Overrated Attractions: Prague Castle

Hidden Gems: Adrspach-Teplice Rocks, Moravian Karst

Food and drink: Goulash, bread/potato dumplings, Pilsner Urquell, Budweiser and many local beers...

Cool people met:
Josephine, Falkor, Alec, Robert (Germans - Prague hostel)
Trevor (Canadian - Prague hostel)
Eric (American - looks like a viking - Prague hostel)
Kylie, Tyrone (Australians - Cesky Crumlov hostel)
Two Finnish guys whose names I can't pronounce or spell (Brno hostel)

Best thing about Czech Republic: The beer!

Worst thing about Czech Republic: The wasps and bugs!

Na shledano!
James

East Germany

utherstadt Wittenburg - Leipzig - Dresden

Gutentag!

Yeah I know I wrote a long email 2 days ago, but I'm now in Prague, Czech Rep, so heres the rest of Germany:

The east of Germany is of stark contrast to the other places I have been to in Germany. Gone are the medieval towns and pretty baroque villages - What we have instead are desolate towns with broken down houses, damaged walls/streets, construction work everywhere and bleak looking buildings. The countryside is also quite flat and filled with grass fields rather than hilly forest mountains and valleys that I’m used to seeing..

But East Germany is a cultural and fascinating place!

Lutherstadt Wittenburg is the town where Martin Luther did most of his work starting the Reformation and the Protestant movement, after nailing his 95 theses to the monetary door. The 95 Theses was basically criticising the Pope and cohorts for "selling indulgences" that is, people can commit sins but be forgiven if they give the Church money.

Apparently there is a movie coming about Luther, starring oddly enough, Ralph Fiennes, who looks nothing like him (Luther is big and blonde, Ralph is scrawny and has a goatee)!

Met a German guy at the hostel with two guitars and sheet music. So somehow we ended up playing/singing duets to the kids that were in the hostel all evening! It was quite fun!

Leipzig has a very Melbourne feel to it, with its beautiful arcades, gardens surrounding the city, the cultural book and music influences, and the big bar and cafe culture within. Which is why I felt quite at home in the place. Though there was construction work everywhere, I still managed to enjoy a string quartet performance in front of the church where Bach is buried, and see the famous settings for Goethe's "Faust"

Left Leipzig with a German girl called Natasch via a car hitching service (which cost us 5 euros whereas train would have cost 16 euros). Got picked up by a nice German couple who drove us through the scenic route to Dresden, which wasn’t terribly exciting because it was all grass fields. On arrival, me and Natasch bought some dinner, beers from the supermarket, rented bikes, and rode down into the old town of Dresden to see the sunset over the famous Augustbrucke bridge, Elbe river and the old beautiful buildings of Dresden illuminated with the street lamps from the grass river bank opposite with our beers.

A stunning panorama! Augustus the Strong, who was the Saxon King, had a love for architecture and made Dresden a marvel to behold! Murals of porcelain adorn buildings of baroque and neoclassical design, many pitch black with dirt over time, sculptures of marble and gold, and green bronze domes decorate the skyline.

Dresden is described as "Florence of the North", but I think of it more as "Paris of the East"!

Germany in a Nutshell

Germany is a wonderful country, with varied countryside and towns ranging from colourful medieval half timbered houses on cobbled streets amongst mountainous terrain, dense cool forests and river valleys; to sprawled out cities with large pedestrian malls, to communist era style bleak or war damaged buildings and streets on flat grassy plans... Germany is an outdoor country, that is, there are so many places to hike and wander around the countryside discovering hidden towns amid romantic settings. However one does need a car to fully explore Germany as many places, despite Germany's modern up to date society, are not easily accessible by public transport.

German people are stereotyped as serious efficient people. Efficient is correct, as everything they make they base on common sense (train system, BMWs, Mercedes, Protestantism, etc). As for being serious, it is actually quite the opposite - Germans are generally cheerful friendly optimistic people always willing to lend a hand if they can understand you. Which most can, as a high percentage of Germans speak English. Germans also feel a sense of shame for the actions of their countryfolk in the past during the wars, and worry that foreigners judge them unfairly because of it, thinking of Germans as "close minded" Nothing is further from the truth.

Germany is known for its beers, but less known for its great coffee and bread rolls (brotchen) which are often sprinkled with different seeds. Germany is also known for the numerous types of sausages they have, some of them raw (yuk!), but most of them tasty and filling, served with mustard and often with bread, fries or potato salad. And a beer. Of course.

Germans have a fondness for Eis Cafes, (ice cream cafes) which are found in practically every main street or markt in Germany, particularly the small towns. Really nice ice creams too! But never understood why they have something called Spagetti Eis, which is ice cream shaped to look like Spagetti with tomato sauce. It's not wrong, it's just different!

Annoying thing about Germany is their stupid church bells, which ring not once, or twice, but ring for 5 minutes non-stop, which can drive you insane!

Beautiful country, friendly people, delicious food and beer, Germany is definitely a country I could see myself settle down in the future!


Favourite places: Berlin, Celle, Wernigode, Hildesheim, Hameln, Dresden... the list goes on

Worst places: Bad Karlshafen

Best building/monument: Neuschwanstein Castle

Overrated tourist attractions: Goslar, Rudesheim

Underrated Gems: Bacarach, Wernigode, Charlotte...

Cool people met:
-Lynn (my "CEBIT coffee gal" - CEBIT)
-Giulia (German girl - CEBIT)
-Gunter (German guy - Berlin, CEBIT)
-Charlotte (German girl - Germersheim and CEBIT)
-Grace (American Phillipino girl - Nuremberg YHA)
-Scott and Margot (German couple - Hildesheim)
-Scott, Mat and Christine (Americans - Wernigode YHA)
-German guy with guitar - never got his name (Lutherstadt Wittenburg YHA)
-Natasch (German girl - Leipzig & Dresden)

Memorable/Funny moments:
-Octoberfest (which I can't remember too much of - Munich)
-Getting lost in Hanover at night with Geoff and Guilia after trying to take a shortcut which ended up in a field an hour later! (CEBIT Hanover)
-Partying with German, Swedish and Australians at Beer Hall at CEBIT (CEBIT Hanover)
-Trying to "seduce" Loreley instead of the other way around (St Goar)
-Being in a car driving on the bicycle path towards oncoming highway traffic at night! (Heidelberg)
-Cooking with Grace at 3am with leftover free food from the backpacker’s pantry and fridge. Still don't know what was in it but IT WAS GOOD! (Nuremberg)
-Playing/Singing guitar duets with German guy for kids at YHA (Lutherstadt Wittenburg)
-Watching sunset and the city lighting up with Natasch and beer by the riverside (Dresden)

Foods tried: All kinds of sausages, kartoffosalat, saurakraut...

Beverages tried: All kinds of beer, from the Bavarian Weissbeer, to Colognes Kolsch, to Berlins Pilsners!

Cultural experiences: Bavarian Beer Halls

Best thing about Germany: People, Food, Countryside

Worst thing about Germany: Expensive inconveniently located Youth Hostels.
TIP: Stay at Backpacker hostels instead!

Central Germany

Fussen - Hohenschwangau - Neuschwanstein - Nuremberg - Bamberg - Wurzberg -Gottigen - Hameln - Hanover - Hildesheim - Goslar - Wernigode - Lutherstadt Wittenburg

Gutentag!

I'll try to keep this short...

Fussen is a pretty baroque little town south of Germany near the Austrian border, a pleasant town that people usually go to because they want to see the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles in the mountains nearby. And with good reason to, as the castles are extraordinarily beautiful - Neuschwanstein being the castle that is the inspiration for the castle for Disney.

The fairytale castles are designed by the insane King Ludwig II (which explains why it is so brilliant). Neuschwanstein is the most beautiful castle I’ve seen, and its interior is just as stunning as the exterior - romantic renaissance styled wall paintings and murals, carved hardwood furniture and adornments... the throne room itself designed like a golden basilica with astronomical motifs on the done symbolising heaven, mosaics of plants and animals on the floor representing the earth, and a enormous gold and coloured glass chandelier in the form of a crown representing the king being in between! And the view from the marienbrucke over the waterfall and gorge overlooking the castles on top of the mountain is a sight to behold!

Nuremberg is a beautiful city, with old stone and wooden romantic bridges over the river, the hauptmarkt, the square where the famous Christmas market is held (I’d love to come back when its on with the snow and the lights and people bustling about). It's amazing how almost the whole city has been reconstructed lovingly to almost it's original state before WWII bombed it to rubble only 60 years ago. Nuremberg is also full of history - the site of massive Nazi propaganda and rallies were held there, as well as the foundation of the first International Court of Human Rights, trialing Nazi war criminals for crimes against humanity after the war.

Bamberg is also a beautiful town filled with stone and wooden bridges and baroque buildings. The monetary on top of the hill has a dome which is covered with, oddly enough, paintings of 110 types of herbs!

Wurzburg boasts its stone fortress on top of a hill with amazing views of the vineyards and the town below. The Baroque cathedral is amazing!

Gottigen is a small university town that has a famous fountain of a bronze girl, apparently the most kissed girl in the world because every doctor who graduates there has to give her a kiss on the cheek! Got into a sculling competition with some graduates. I lost (of course)!

Hameln is famous for the Pied Piper legend/fairytale, where a colourful character with a pipe leads the rats in the town to drown in the river, and then leads the children of the town out to a place where they are never discovered again. There is historical evidence that there was the strange sudden disappearance of 130 children in the area, which is creepy. Anyway the town itself is stunning with colourful baroque and medieval buildings and references to the fairytale everywhere.

Hanover was nice to revisit. It was the first town I visited travelling solo, and my impression of it is of stark contrast to what I thought originally; what was a large confusing city has become a small comfortable city, which shows I’ve gone a long way from when I started as a lost confused inexperienced traveller. I even discovered the old town which I never knew existed, with the red brick cathedral and architecturally unusual rathaus (town hall).

Was planning to meet up with Lynn (who I met at CEBIT) but I couldn’t get in touch with her, so I went to plan B, which was going to Hildesheim.

I fell in love with Hildesheim, the people there are the friendliest people I have ever met in my travels.

I got a lift from a family from the train station to the youth hostel (which was very far away), then walking back I got lost and asked an old couple who walked me halfway to the city centre, then having dinner in the beautiful markt watching with everyone else two musicians playing blues, a couple joined me and ended up paying for my meal and driving me back home! The town itself is pleasant, with churches of varying styles dotted around the pedestrian shopping malls and the reconstructed historical centre (unnecessarily bombed at the end of the war) which is stunning!

After Hildesheim I went to Goslar, a tourist town for its mining history and the surrounding Hartz mountains. The medieval city is beautiful, but not as beautiful as Wernigode, where all the houses are colourful medieval houses with a fairytale out of this world rathaus, and a romantic stone castle on top of a forested hill with great views below...

Eastern Germany I’ll write about soon, then I will go to Czech rep, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary!

Germany - Rhine and Black Forest

Cologne - Koblenz - St Goar - Bacarach - Rudensheim - Wiesbaden - Mainz - Germersheim - Speyer - Heidelberg - Freudenstadt - Freiberg - Constance - Meersburg - Lindau

GutenTag Alles!

Before I start I must answer a few things that people keep asking me. Firstly, No, I am not fat after eating my way through Belgium!

Secondly, yes I would love to do travel writing (thankyou for your compliments), but don’t know any publishers or editors. So if anyone knows of any let me know!

Anyway, left Brussels and arrived in Cologne, which has an excessively large gothic cathedral, Romanesque churches, and a very impressive outdoor shopping mall filled with gallerias, clothing stores, cafes and restaurants. A shopper’s paradise it seems (though Dusseldorf nearby apparently has more fashionable/expensive shops).

Went to Koblenz next where I was to start my Rhine river cruise. (The Rhine by the way is apparently toxic so swimming and fishing is not recommended, which is a real shame)

The Rhine river cruise was a lot of fun, passing by beautiful cliffs, picturesque medieval houses and romantic castle ruins along the way. There are also lots of vineyards, which I have no idea how they manage to grow on what looks like infertile rock faces on very steep inclines facing the river.

The cruise took me from Koblenz to Rudensheim, passing through and hopping on and off several riverside towns such as St Goar and Bacarach.

Portugal is full of walled towns, Spain has cathedrals, France has arrogant people - I mean Chateaux’s, Belgium has colourful Flemish architecture.....and Germany has its medieval painted wooden villages! These riverside towns were all medieval in character, filled with wooden houses and cobbled streets and vineyards. Bacarach is extremely beautiful and a real surprise as its not visited as much as the other tourist towns of St Goar, and Rudensheim - known for its famous narrow cafe/restaurant lined street which really is quite ordinary (I saw a nicer version in Brussels).

The odds of having "Waltzing Matilda" being sung/played to you by a Slovakian duo who is famous for playing Austrian folk music in Japan in a pub in Rudensheim is usually very remote. But it happened!

Anyway, also passed by the Loreley rock, which is well...a rock. Actually more a cliff face. The Loreley is a siren, a mythical woman who used to sing and seduce sailors to their deaths by drawing them in with her enchanting voice and having them crash into the rocky cliffs to drown.

Every year the area nominates the prettiest girl in the area to act as the Loreley, and with her minstrel, they are supposed to board the ferries and sing and dance to tourists. Anyway I thought it would be funny to try and seduce Loreley (instead of the other way around). Her minstrel was not impressed (I think he harboured a secret attraction to her). Anyway, turns out she is actually from the Czech Republic, as are all the Loreley girls in the past! Must be due to cheaper labour, because there certainly is no shortage of pretty girls in the region (particularly south in Wiesbaden/Mainz which is where I went to next.)

Wiesbaden and Mainz are two cities divided by the Rhine river, both equally pleasant towns with a large red cathedral in each (the one in Mainz full of skeleton statues and scenes of death which I found quite odd.)

Germersheim was next, to meet up with Charlotte, a pretty German girl who I met earlier this year when working at the CEBIT exhibition in Hanover. Charlotte also became my girlfriend during my stay in Germersheim, who I am still crazy about and was very reluctant to leave behind!

Germersheim is a small university town full of single nice girls and not many men. Which I had no problem with! Germersheim also boasts a fortress built “recently” to defend itself against no one (because who in their right mind would want to take over Germersheim?).

Charlotte took me to Speyer, which has a famous cathedral (why that is I don't know) with a copper dome roof that had turned jade green in the rain. We had fun making up silly translations for the murals on the walls that were in Latin...

Was taken to a university party in Heidelberg with her and 3 other girls (lucky me!), and somehow we got lost and ended up driving on a bicycle path towards oncoming traffic on the highway!

Heidelberg (which I had been to before) is a very beautiful town nestled in a valley with pretty houses dotting the landscape. The romantic ruined reddish castle sits up high overlooking an old stone bridge which me and Charlotte crossed to get onto the famous Philosophers Path, which is a series of winding steep stairs and pathways through overhanging trees and vines that philosophers of old walked about pondering the philosophical thoughts etc. It is also a glorious vantage point overlooking the town below.

Left for the Black Forest next. Or at least tried to. I've discovered to make the most of Germany's countryside you really need a car and a lot of time, both of which I do not have! So I think I will have to return to Germany at some later stage and drive around preferably with a friend, to do the Black Forest, Romantic, Castle and Fairytale roads...

Anyway, caught a train into the Black Forest region to Freudenstadt (meaning city of joy) which should really be called Leerstadt (empty city) as there was hardly any life in the area, in fact I was 1 of 4 people staying in the hostel! Freudenstadt boasts the largest market square in Germany and that’s about it. Caught another train to Freiberg. The train trips allowed me to go through the Black Forest so I did get to see some nice hilly, forested countryside and houses....

Freiberg is a beautiful town, with a bit of a Swiss feel and oddly Flemish architecture within. There are also little canal gullies in the streets where water would gush from some unknown source into some unknown destination, the likes I’ve never seen before.

Went to Lake Constance next, which is a huge turquoise coloured lake bordering Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Was planning to stay at Constance but the youth hostel was full, so caught a ferry to Lindau*, stopping off at Meersburg.
*The YHA in Lindau was also full so stayed in a pension. The problem I’m facing at the moment is getting cheap accommodation as it is the peak tourist season and all the cheap hostels are booked solidly with loud students and annoying kids!

Anyway, didn't really explore Constance but it seemed like a nice place. Meersburg is a photographer’s delight, all the medieval houses up a steep cobbled road to the two castles of different architectural styles (one old medieval, one new baroque) overlooking the lake itself!

I am still in Lindau Island at the moment, which sits in the Lake itself with beautiful views around and cool crystal blue water which I have spent the day with my feet in the water with some ducks reading a book and relaxing before I head of for Fussen tomorrow....

Ok this blog is too long so I’ll stop here! Tschuess!

(How I ate my way through) Belgium

Bruges - Ghent - Antwerp - Brussels

I'm currently eating my way through Belgium.

Left France to enter Bruges, a beautiful town, which is pretty much an open-air museum with all the old lavishly ornate Flemish style buildings with step ladder like roofs and sculptured decorated facades to the minutest detail to the point that even park benches look cool!

By a stroke of luck and timing I ended up meeting up with Arwen, a good friend back from Melbourne, who happened to have just started working at the famous Bauhaus hostel I ended up staying at!

Was offered a job to work at the hostel there myself (free food, beer, accommodation, small pay) which I would have accepted if I didn't have to go home in October for my brothers wedding.... oh well, no reason why I can't come back next year....

Anyway we ended up walking and catching up around the cobbled town seeing the sights, somehow avoiding being run over by bicycles and horse drawn carriages, and eating. In one afternoon we had strawberries, a tub of ice cream and Belgium chocolates in the park, then went back to the hostel and had fries, pizza and beer (stopping on the way home for some yummy sausages in a kiosk in the main square).

Enjoyed some Belgium waffles covered with bananas and melted chocolate. Yum.

We did a day trip to Ghent, which is a more realistic city than Bruges, a student town with lots of Flemish architecture, castle, and the cathedral containing the famous Flemish painting "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" (which sounds like an ideal smashing pumpkins song title). And yes we ate some more.

Reluctantly I left Bruges after 3 days to go to Antwerp.

Had some moules met frites (Mussels with Fries), which was a very large serving (took me over an hour to eat it all), very delicious, and very expensive.

Looked at the diamond shops in Antwerp around the Jewish quarter where the streets are full of Jewish people dressed with their black coats, hats and hairstyles. The weather in Antwerp is strange as it would rain one minute, then be sunny the next, then both at once. Actually that sounds like Melbourne....

Went to Brussels next.

Do you know the famous Australian "Land Down Under" song by "Men at Work"?

"Buying bread from a man from Brussels,
He was 6 foot tall and full of muscles
I said 'do ya speaka my language?'
He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich, and he said
'I come from the land down under....'"

Well I tried to replicate the same thing, and the closest I got to it was this result:

"Buying waffles from a girl from Brussels,
She was quite petite with too much makeup,
I said 'Spreek U Engels?' (Flemish for "Do you speak English?")
She just stared and then gave me a confused look, and she said
'Non, Francais!'"*

It seems that only the north of Belgium speak English and Flemish, and the south of Belgium speak English and French. (Which was annoying because I finally learnt the word for "please" in Flemish (alstublieft))

Anyway, Brussels, like Antwerp, has a nice Grotte Markt (Main Square) of beautiful Flemish guild hall buildings of gold and lavish decorations. Also saw the Manniken Pis, which is the famous statue of a boy peeing and is apparently the best-dressed statue in the world with over 700 costumes made for it. Obviously the Belgiums have too much time in their hands...

Stayed with Francesca, a Canadian girl with an Irish accent (who I met travelling in Blois France), in an attic flat with a terrace that you get to by climbing through the window. Anyway on my last night in Belgium yesterday I went with her and her friends to a party that went on all night and as a result I am writing this in a sleep-deprived state (in Cologne, Germany). So apologies if this email seems a little surreal...

Anyway...
Belgium in a Nutshell

Belgium, like Portugal, is one of those countries that no one thinks of visiting but is an absolute gem! Most people in fact pass through it on route from Amsterdam to Paris which is a real shame because they will be missing a country with beautiful colourful Flemish architecture, cathedrals that all chime musical pieces, friendly people and 1,000+ types of beers (700+ breweries), chocolates, waffles and large servings of frites with mayonnaise! Belgium people love their frites, a slow pleasurably way towards heart disease I’m sure...

Belgium is a country where you can just sit around all day doing nothing, and if you blink you'll find yourself having spent a couple of days in one place without having actually seen anything around the town. Mainly because the towns and sights are pretty small and you think that "oh I’ll just hang around the hostel sleeping and relaxing because surely it won't take too long to see everything" and then the next time you look at your watch it says 4pm and you've seemed to have skipped lunch. Not that I’ve been having proper meals, I’ve pretty much been snacking all the time here....

Belgium people have a very laid back attitude to life. For example in customer service they will act as if you're not there, doing their own thing until you actually speak to them, and then suddenly you exist! They are also extremely complacent; for example if litter flies from their table onto the floor they'll leave it there - if a person rides a bike into a wall they'll look and then go on their merry way...

Gotta love Belgium.

Favourite place: Bruges

Worst place: Brussels (only because I have to choose a worst place)

Best meal: Moules met Frites (Antwerp)

Worst meal: Stale Falafel sandwich (Antwerp)

Best nightlife: Brussels

Best building/monument: Bruges is a open air museum of its own

Overrated tourist attractions: Manniken Pis

Underrated Gems: Ghent

Cool people met:
-Arwen (But I already know her from home)
-Staff from Bauhaus Youth Hostel (Bruges)
-Staff from Boomerang Youth Hostel (Antwerp)
-Francesca, Jess, Patrick, Chris (Brussels)

Foods tried: Frites, waffles, Frites, Monsieur Croquets, frites, sausages, frites, mussels with frites, Frites, chocolate, frites, frites, frites!

Beverages tried: Too many types of beers (Duvel, Hoegaarden, Jupiler, Westmalle, Leffe, De Koninck, Palm, to name a few)

Cultural experiences: Beer drinking, waffle eating, frite eating, being lazy...

Best thing about Belgium: The food and beer!

Worst thing about Belgium: The frequently changing weather!

Anyway, next destination is through Germany, through the Rhine to the Black Forest Road to Romantic Road to Fairy Tale Road to Dresden then into the Czech Republic!

Tschuess!

North France

Paris - Blois - Chambord - Cheverny - Le Manns - Rennes - St Malo - Mount St Michel - Dol - Bayeux - Arromanches - Longues Sur Mer - Omaha Beach - Lille

Salut!

I’m using a stupid Belgium/French keyboard so forgive my poor rushed writing...

Paris was my next destination from Lyon, which I’ve been to before. But I wanted to spend a couple of days there doing things I didn't get to do the first time I was there, such as see the catacombs where the bones of millions of Parisians were piled, the Pere Lachaise cemetery where the graves of Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde are buried, the Moulin Rouge, the Louvre to see Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo... I find Paris is very much like Berlin, in that it has just as many sights and is just as big, but is missing a certain "je ne sais pas" about it, and it is way too touristy! Therefore Berlin remains my favourite city in Europe (Annecy my favourite town)...but so many cities yet to visit...

I was lucky to see the Olympic relay torch runner run right past me, as I was just wandering aimlessly around outside the Louvre looking at my map when all of a sudden people started forming a line around me and the next thing I knew this French guy with the Olympic torch comes running past a few feet away from me cheering!

Anyway, spent a day in Versailles, with its grand chateaux and the impressive gardens where I was lucky (again, I must be blessed) to arrive in time to see the fountains turned on and music playing, which only happens for two hours on the weekends!

Went to Blois next. In Blois everyone is nice and the town a little backward even though it's a tourist place, there is one bus to the youth hostel every day at 6pm but several coming from it. Go figure! Blois is a pretty small town in comparison to its neighbour - Tours. Blois also has a chateaux and a really tacky house of magic - I recall seeing a dodgy gold dragon head coming out of the top story window and looking about with sinister music playing - which was enough to convince me not to go in.

Went to see two famous Loire Valley Chateaux’s close to Blois, Chambord and Cheverny. Chambord was quite impressive outside with its many terraces, shires and gardens, but the interior was quite plain. It also has a double helix staircase apparently designed by Leonardo Da Vinci, which consists of two stairways twisting around each other, which is pretty cool. Cherverny on the other hand was ordinary on the outside but lavishly decorated on the inside.

Chateaued out, I left Blois for Saint Malo, which is a nice walled port town with great beaches and peaceful atmosphere. On route to Saint Malo I stopped in the towns Dol, Le Manns and Rennes, both quite pretty in its Bretagne province style medieval houses and streets. I wish I had more time to go through the rural towns of Bretagne...

Went to Mount Saint Michel, which is a hill island connected to the mainland by a causeway, with a huge abbey on top and walled ramparts circling up the hill reminiscent of Minas Tirith from Lord of the Rings! The island itself is surrounded by water only at high tide - at low tide it is surrounded by sand and in some places, quicksand! It was quite scary walking around the island trying not to step in quicksand.

Went into Normandy to Bayeux to see the D-Day Beaches that I’ve always wanted to see!

Typically not much can be seen today of the remains of WWII, just a few bunkers at Omaha beach (Sorry Tim, couldn’t find you any bullet souvenirs on the beach), the American cemetery, huge gun batteries at Longues and parts of an artificial port at Arromanches. Rode an old French push bike (that sounded like a rusty tank) there with some American friends Brendan and Anna and after riding uphill 50km the whole day against the strong wind and some rain I never want to ride a bike again, for at least a while! We were so exhausted that we ended up catching a taxi back once we got to Omaha beach, which cost 57 euros! But it was still fun and well worth it, and cheaper than any of the guided tours on offer; plus we got to see some cool Normandy countryside!

Bayeux is the only town in Normandy not to have been destroyed by bombs during WWII so it is in preserved original condition. The cathedral is quite pretty, and I also got to see the famous Bayeux tapestry which is 70m long and 1,000 years old, depicting the story of William the Conqueror and demonstrating why if people break their promises they will get bad karma. Or something like that.

Went to Lille next, which is quite pretty, with a bit of a Flemish feel to it. With it’s three main plazas next to each other it is like one big plaza full of activity, especially stunning at night when the lights go on and you get to wander the streets or sit under the upside down trees in one of the plazas (yes that’s right, upside down, suspended in mid air!).

Now I am in Bruges in Belgium, having by a great stroke of luck and timing just met up with Arwen, a dear old friend from Melbourne. But I’ll write about Belgium next email...

France in a Nutshell

France is surprisingly cosmopolitan with a large Asian and African population, mainly due to the French colonies of Indochina and some African countries. As a result, Chinese restaurants and Kebab places abound. As stated before, two facets of France exist in contradictory harmony: pleasant affluent classy areas full of snobby people, and seedy areas mainly inhabited by immigrants, all in the same clean wide streets and leafy boulevards, old city quarters and grand plazas full of outdoor cafes where people sit facing the middle of the road or plaza watching and judging people.

The stereotype of snobby French people reigns true; but then if you are stuck with having to eat frogs legs and snails instead of say, paella, sangria and tapas, I’d be bad tempered too! Also, calling French people "frogs" makes some sense when you listen to the way they speak French in a throaty croaky kind of way!

If Spain is the place to party, France is the place to chill out the day after.

Favourite place: Annecy

Worst place: Toulouse

Places with best views: Carcassone, Grenoble, Annecy

Best meal: The food at the Marseille Youth Hostel

Worst meal: Ham and Camembert Sandwiches that got warm in the hot weather in Toulouse

Best nightlife: Lyon

Best beach: Marseilles

Best building/monument: Annecy in general

Overrated tourist attractions: Paris, Toulouse

Underrated Gems: Annecy, Lyon

Cool people met:
- Bruno (French guy with gift of drawing Manga comics (he drew me one) - Bordeaux YHA)
- Flannigan (American girl I spent till 3am in the dark talking to - Bordeaux YHA)
- Karla and Ali (Mexican twins - Marseilles YHA)
- Emma (Eccentric English girl - Marseilles YHA)
- Owen (Crazy Irish guy - Marseilles YHA)
- Kay (English girl - Marseilles YHA)
- The staff at Grenoble YHA
- Marta (German girl - Annecy)
- Sheryl and Nadia (Australian girls - Lyon YHA)
- Francesca and Mina (Canadian girls - Blois YHA)
- Anna and Brendon (Americans - Bayeux YHA)

Funniest moments:
- Owen when drunk
- Scheming with Emma on how we could con an expensive restaurant into thinking we were international food critics (it sounded like a good idea at the time as we had too much to drink)
- The night in Marseilles with Owen and Kay that ended up with us hitch hiking, walking around seedy areas and sleeping on pavement outside YHA at 5am
- Karla’s reaction to a local speciality biscuit tasting in Marseilles (She spat it out and asked the chef if they liked it cause she found it awful. Oddly enough the chef agreed)
- Being unable to find the 50km sized lake in Annecy despite Annecy being such a small town and being led by Marta, getting lost in the wilderness instead.
-The "great" bike ride through Normandy D-Day sights

Foods tried: Snails, baguettes, paninis, glaces, 10 out of 366 cheeses in existence in France...

Beverages tried: Too many wines, 1664 and Kronenberg beer

Cultural experiences: Cafe sitting, wine drinking, riding dodgy bike through countryside...

Best thing about France: The buildings, streets, boulevards, chateaux’s, wine...

Worst thing about France: The people

Anyway, gotta go, Eurocup final on tonight (Portugal vs. Greece). Go Portugal!